We will spend our 2025 season looking back on the past seasons, especially the 50 greatest teams in history, which I call the best 50. The best team in baseball.
Here is a quick boilerplate note attached to each story I have in this series:
I compiled the best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major league teams from 1903 to 2024. (The historical percentile for a given club is the percentage of its other 2,543 teams.)
Please refer to my book to explain my TS calculations. The book also offers a separate breakdown of the best and worst clubs every decade, along with a comprehensive overview of the best 50 (including a position-by-position lineup and more information than you will find in this newsletter), and a similar summary of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now enter today’s profile.
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Team: Boston Red Sox in 1912
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Team Score: 86.334 points
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Ranking History: 33 of 2,544
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Historical percentile: 98.74%
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Seasonal record: 105-47 (.691)
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Season position: No. 1 in the American League
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Final identity: World Champion
The Boston Americans renamed the Red Sox in 1908, and this change had no immediate impact on their image or fate. The early success of the franchise ended with the 1903 World Championship, just a memory. After 1904, the Americans failed to compete for the American League title, and the Red Sox continued the unpleasant tradition. They ranked third and fifth between 1908 and 1911.
Then in 1912 an unexpected miracle occurred. Philadelphia Track and Field (the winner of the first two World Series) is very popular to repeat the AL Champs. But the Red Sox has rebuild their roster with young talented players Joe Wood And sleek center fielder Tris speakers. Boston’s roster began in mid-June and turned to speeding, winning 72 of its last 100 games. Sox entered Tennant through 14 games.
Get a complete low in 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The 1912 World Series against the New York Giants opened the game with a very good start against the Red Sox, with the Red Sox leading the way. There was a victory between them and the champion.
But the Giants’ consecutive 5-2 and 11-4 wins boomed, laying the foundation for a decisive eighth game. (The second game ended with a draw, extending seven best series.) New York was eliminated with a third inning. The Red Sox retorted in the seventh. The deadlock continued until the top of the 10th, when the Giants led 2-1.
Boston leads batsman at the tenth bottom, Clyde Engelto the New York Center Guard Lazy Fly Fred Snodgrass. “Any high school student can easily grab it,” Fred Lieb New York Press. But Snold Grass inexplicably dropped the ball. His two-base error opened the door for a 3-2 Boston victory, Larry GardnerDriving home with a sacrifice flight.
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The first version of the Most Valuable Player Award was unveiled in 1911, and Chalmers Automobile announced that it would showcase new cars every year to the “most important and useful players” in each league. The Chalmers Award didn’t last long – the 1914 recession forced the company to give up sponsorship – although it did recognize five future Hall of Fame members in just four years. These include a Tris spokesman for the 1912 MVP of the American League.
That year, the speakers flashed with power and speed. He ranked fourth with 10 home runs and fourth with 52 stolen bases. But it was his skills in the fields that made him unique. The speaker played an unusually shallow midfield game, which allowed him to catch the ball without any opponents. “I saw the singles lost game fall on the infielder’s loss three times the loss than the outfielder’s head,” he explained. The speaker threw out 35 basemen in 1912, which is still a single season record for outfielders in the league.
Another great star in Boston is Smoky Joe Wood, a tough right-winger who exploded with a 23-win victory in 1911. He raised his bet to 34 wins in 1912, winning 16 straight games between early July and mid-September – he is still only 22 years old. Wood later said: “I am the king of the mountaintops, and the top of the pile is the best.” But the injury the following year will bring his supreme end to abruptly. “I never had a lot of pain on my right shoulder again,” he said. “Never again.”
